Packaging apparatus



N v- 9, 1960 s. L. HARMON ET AL 2,962,060

PACKAGING APPARATUS Filed March 19, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet l Nov. 29, 1960s. L. HARMON ET AL 2,962,060

PACKAGING APPARATUS v Filed March 19, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 PACKAGINGAPPARATUS Shepard L. Harmon and John Hohl, Toledo, Ohio, assignors toOwens-lllinois Glass Company, a corporation of Ohio Filed Mar. 19, 1958,Ser. No. 722,531

12 Claims. (Cl. 141--7t}) The present invention relates to packagingapparatus and more especially is concerned with the provision of noveland etfective means for maintaining undisturbed and undiluted an inertgas that has been introduced into the headspace of filled containers,preparatory to their being delivered to and sealed by a closure capapplying apparatus.

In the packaging of certain commodities, it is not only highlydesirable, but frequently absolutely essential that oxygen be excludedfrom the jars or like containers in order to insure against rapidspoilage of the product. To this end an inert gas may be introduced intoand fill a jar prior to depositing therein the product to be packaged.Upon deposition of such product, a substantial part of the gas isdisplaced, leaving enough however to fill the usual headspaceimmediately above the product. Ordinarily movement of such jars to thecapping machine causes turbulence of the ambient atmosphere andresultant replacement of some, if not all, of the gas in the headspacewith oxygen. Such, as explained above, results in short shelf life andfrequently complete spoilage of the product.

An object of our invention is the provision of effective means forovercoming the above indicated objection and insuring retention inundiluted condition, the inert gas previously introduced into thecontainer and occupying the headspace.

A further object of our invention is the provision of an inert gasinjector arrangement operable to produce a blanket of such gas over andabout the neck portions of filled open jars or such containers and novelmeans for closely controlling the direction of movement of theintroduced gas so that it fiows toward the center line of the path oftravel of the jars and additionally in the direction of movement of thelatter at the proper velocity.

It is also an object of our invention to provide a novel form of inertgas injector which will direct gas from opposite sides of a path oftravel of filled open jars in such fashion as to create a gas blanketenveloping the top and neck portions of the jars and advancing with thelatter whereby to prevent dilution or displacement of gas alreadyoccupying the jar headspace.

Other objects will be in part apparent and in part pointed outhereinafter.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary top plan view of a packaging apparatusincorporating our invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary vertical longitudinal sectional view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a transparent cover plate which comprises apart of our invention.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional plan view taken substantially alongthe plane of line 44 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially along theplane of line 55 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail sectional view of the gas injector elementshown at the right-hand side of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 showing another specific form of thegas directing vanes or louvers.

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken substantially along the plane of line88 of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a view similar to Figs. 6 and 7 showing still another specificform of the vanes or louvers.

Our invention is shown positioned between a jar filling machine 10 whichmay be of conventional or any preferred form and a straight line gasconfining tunnel 11 the discharge end of which terminates in proximityto closure cap applying mechanism (not shown). This gas confining tunnel11 and associated elements (not shown) comprise the subject matter ofour copending application for U.S. Letters Patent, Serial Number 722,532filed March 19, 1958. The present invention is directly associated witha transfer star wheel 12 which is mounted upon and rotates about theaxis of a vertical shaft 13, such star wheel comprising a pair ofsuperposed disks 12*, provided with an annular series of uniformlyspaced peripheral recesses 14 which remove jars 15 or the like filledcontainers from the turret 16 of said filling machine 10 to a conveyor17 which is positioned beneath the aforementioned gas confining tunnel11. During movement of the jars 15 under the influence of said starwheel 12, they are blanketed in the vicinity of their open neck portionswith an inert gas such as CO or nitrogen which preferably moves with thejars and substantially at the same velocity for the purpose ofpreventing any appreciable degree of relative movement of the jars andambient atmosphere as would cause excessive turbulence and result eitherin dilution of inert gas in the headspace of the jars or perhapscomplete removal of such gas and replacement thereof with oxygen.

In one embodiment of our invention (Figs. 1 through 6), it comprises apair of inert gas injection units, one

of each being positioned at and extending along one side of the arcuatepath of travel of the jars 15. These units are formed to introduce inertgas into the area through which the mouth and neck portions of the jarsmove and such gas is maintained in this zone by means of a cover. Eachof the gas injection units 18 is of arcuate form being coaxial with thestar wheel supporting shaft 13 a longitudinal series of ports 23 formedin the aforemen tioned partition or dividing wall 21. Discharge ports 24are formed in the inner wall 25 of each of the expansion chambers 20 forthe purpose of delivering inert gas under suitable pressure to the jarneck accommodating space 26.

The'supply of inert gas is delivered by way of a supply pipe 27 and aheader 28 which extends transverse to the length of the gas injectionunits. This header has its ends connected to the outer or high pressurechambers 19 through discharge openings 29 in the header and registeringinlet openings 30 in said chambers 19; Prefe'r,

ably this header 28 is positioned at that end of the gas injectoradjacent the straight line gas confining tunnel 11. The casting fromwhich each gas injecting unit is formed is provided with a horizontallongitudinal flange 25 which projects into the jar neck accommodatingspace 26 from the exterior wall 25 of the expansion chamber 20. Thisflange is positioned just below the plurality of discharge ports 24 andtogether with the cover plate C (Figs. 3 and 6) closes the open spacesbetween aplu- Patented Nov. 29, 1 960 rality of vanes or louvers 31which are arranged along the exterior wall of said expansion chamber 20and correspond in number to that of the discharge ports 24. These vanesor louvers may be secured by screws 32 or the like fasteners to theexpansion chamber walls and comprise flat generally rectangular plateswhich are disposed diagonally in relation to the path of travel of thejars 15. In that form of our invention shown in Figs. 1 through 6, eachof these vanes 31 has a corner section cut away providing a recess 33(Fig. 6) Which accommodates a portion of an elongated baflle bar 34.This bafiie bar is suitably secured to the upper outer margin of theflange 25 and is positioned directly across from the discharge ports 24to thereby insure initial delivery of the gas into the extreme upperareas of the jar accommodating space 26 and thereby effect envelopmentof the mouth and neck portions of the jars. The aforementioned coverplate C preferably is formed of some transparent material, such, forexample, as Lucite and extends from the header 28 to a tie-bar 35 (Fig.l) which together interconnect the two gas injection units 18. Clamps Creleasably secure the cover plate C in operative position. The coverplates 22 for the gas chambers 19and 20 are secured to the chambercasting by means of screws 36, certain of which also serve to rigidlymount the entire assembly upon a support 37. This perhaps is best shownin Fig. 5.

With a structure as just described, jars are advanced withoutinterruption by means of the star wheel unit 12 and during their travelbetween the gas injection units 18 have their mouth and neck portionscompletely blanketed by an inert gas. This gas is introduced undersuitable pressure into the jar neck accommodating space 26 and becauseof the diagonal positioning of the vanes or louvers 31 such injected gaswill also move forwardly with and at approximately the same speed as thejar travel with the result that there is little, if any, relativemovement between the jars and the surrounding atmosphere such as wouldproduce turbulence and result in displacement or dilution of inert gasthat has already been introduced into the jars. These filled, open jarsafter moving beyond the header 28 enter another gas chamber 11 which, asstated heretofore, has associated with it devices disclosed and claimedin a copending ap plication.

'In Figs. 7 and 8, we have disclosed a slight modification whichessentially comprises omission of the bafile bars 34 shown in Fig. 6 andconsequent formation of the vanes or louvers 31 so that they areeffective throughout their entire height as means for determining thezone of delivery of the discharged gas. This obviously increases thevertical dimension of the zone of initial entry of the gas into the jarneck accommodating space 26 and in certain situations is quitedesirable.

In Fig. 9, we have shown a still further modification in which a bafflebar 34 is positioned upon the flange 25 as in the first described formof our invention but the vanes or louvers 31 are shortened horizontallyand terminate in the plane of the inner wall of said baflle bar.

Wherever oxygen is referred to in this application, it is to beunderstood that such is intended to also include free air which containsapproximately twenty-one percent (21%) oxygen.

Other modifications may be resorted to within the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

We claim:

1. In apparatus for providing a blanket of inert gas for enveloping theopen upper end portions of a plurality of filled jars while the latterare traveling along a prescribed horizontal path between jar filling andclosure capping devices, a conveyor for advancing jars along anelongated path, an elongated horizontal cover plate overlying a portionof the conveyor, a gas distributing chamher extending along each sidemargin of the plate, said chambers defining side margins of an elongatedjar neck accommodating space overlying the conveyor, means fordelivering inert gas to an end of each chamber, each said chamber havinga vertical wall provided with a longitudinal series of discharge portsopening into said jar neck accommodating space and a plurality of vanesor louvers disposed vertically on edge and at an angle to directdischarged gas into and generally along the path of travel of the jarsand in the direction of movement of the latter, the previously mentionedcover plate in part resting upon the upper ends of the vanes or louversand closing the upper ends of open spaces between said louvers and acontinuous horizontal flange extending along each chamber and closingthe lower ends of said open spaces.

2. In apparatus for providing a blanket of inert gas for enveloping theopen upper end portions of a plurality of filled jars while the latterare traveling along a prescribed horizontal path between jar filling andclosure capping devices, a conveyor for advancing jars along anelongated horizontal path, an elongated horizontal cover plate overlyinga portion of the path of travel of the jars, a pair of contiguous innerand outer gas distributing chambers at each side margin of said plate, avertical longitudinal dividing wall between each pair of chambers formedwith ports providing communication between said chambers, means fordelivering inert gas to an open end of each outer chamber at relativelyhigh pressure, each said inner chamber having a wall provided with alongitudinal series of discharge ports opening into an elongated jarneck accommodating space overlying the path of travel of the jars anddefined marginally by the pair of inner chambers, a plurality of vanesor louvers disposed vertically and on edge and extending diagonallyrelative to the path of travel of the jars to direct discharged gastoward the center line of said path and generally in the direction oftravel of the jars and means associated with the vanes to concentrateapplication of the gas to the upper areas of said jar neck accommodatingspace.

3. The apparatus defined in claim 2, the lastnamed means in partcomprising a flange projecting horizontally inwardly from each saidchamber immediately beneath the discharge ports in the latter and abaflle supported on each said flange directly opposite the series ofdischarge ports.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 3, the elongated horizontal cover platecooperating with the aforementioned flange in closing the upper andlower ends of the open spaces between the vanes or louvers.

5. The apparatus defined in claim 2, the vanes or louvers beingindividual to the discharge ports and means securing the vanes to thegas chambers.

6. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, the means for delivering inert gascomprising a chamber-like header extending transversely of said path atone of the gas distributing chambers, said header and the outer chambershaving ports establishing communication between them and means forsupplying an inert gas under pressure to the header.

7. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, a star wheel operable to propel thejars along said horizontal path and both gas distributing chambers lyingin a horizontal plane above and formed on arcs coaxial with the starwheel.

8. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, the cover platebeing formed of atransparent material and clamping means for releasably securing theplate in position overthe jars.

9. In apparatus for providing a blanket of inert gas for enveloping theopen upper end portions of a plurality of filled jars while the latterare traveling along a prescribed horizontal path between jar filling andclosure capping devices, a conveyor for advancing jars along said path,an elongated horizontal cover plate overlying a portion of the path oftravel of the jars, a gas distributing chamber extending along each sidemargin of the plate.

means for delivering inert gas to an end of each chamber, each saidchamber having a vertical wall provided with a longitudinal series ofdischarge ports opening into an elongated jar neck accommodating spaceoverlying the path of travel of the jars and defined marginally by thepair of chambers and a plurality of vanes or louvers disposed verticallyon edge and at an angle to direct discharged gas cinto and generallyalong the path of travel of the jars and in the direction of movement ofthe latter, a longitudinal horizontal flange extending inwardly fromeach chamber just below the discharge ports, the vanes or louversextending vertically from the flange to the aforementioned cover plate.

10. Apparatus as defined in claim 9 and a bafile bar resting upon theflange near its free edge directly opposite the discharge ports.

11. Apparatus as defined in claim 9, each vane being a fiat generallyrectangular plate formed with a cut-out corner to accommodate a portionof the bafile bar.

12. Apparatus as defined in claim 9, the vanes terminating short of thefree edge of the flange and a bafile bar extending along the flangebetween said free edge and the vanes directly opposite the dischargeports.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,107,237 Davies Feb. 1, 1938 2,317,470 Marx Apr. 27, 1943 2,620,111Hohl Dec. 2, 1952 2,620,112 Hohl Dec. 2, 1952 2,787,875 Johnson Apr. 9,1957

